BIS - IT Infrastructure

"Our over-riding brief to the project team was for ‘zero impact' on our users… and Fujitsu achieved that in spade".

Paul Reynolds – Director ICT Services, BIS

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is the UK government department responsible for generating sustainable growth and productivity in modern Britain by supporting successful business, ensuring fair markets and promoting world-class science and innovation.

Initially, an upgrade of the desktop platform to Microsoft Windows XP was required to exploit its advanced features and the new business applications designed for the latest Internet Explorer. However, changing the desktop hardware at the same time as introducing a new operating system was considered too disruptive for users. Fujitsu instead upgraded the 5,500 existing PCs to Windows XP, updated all of the applications and migrated 4,000 internal databases to Access 2002. While this work was underway, Fujitsu ensured that all users could continue to use any workstation on the estate whether it had been upgraded or not.